Rain, snow hit East during Thanksgiving rush

1of9Rishi, 5, and Ravi Chandra, 3, wheel their suitcases through O'Hare International airport Wednesday in Chicago as they head to Austin with their parents.Photo: M. Spencer Green, STF

2of9East High School basketball player Amer Mandzic, a Bosnian immigrant originally from Sarajevo, center, laughs while talking with his teammates while volunteering at a free Thanksgiving dinner for members of the local community, sponsored by ANA Basketball, in the cafeteria at East High, downtown Denver, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2013. Mandzic's teammates are, left to right, Tye Miller, Drew Brinen, Ben Derubertis, Kobe Wright, and Kenneth Mackey. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)Photo: Brennan Linsley, STF

3of9On the busiest travel day of the year, family and friends watch for arrivals of loved ones, at Denver International Airport, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)Photo: Brennan Linsley, STF

4of9Arianna Meredon, 9, of Albuquerque, NM, pulls her roller bag as she makes her way through Love Field airport after arriving in Dallas, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2013. Meredon came for a visit to Dallas to attend an NFL football game and visit her aunt who is a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. (AP Photo/LM Otero)Photo: LM Otero, STF

5of9A United Airlines flight takes off from the Los Angeles International Airport on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2013, in Los Angeles. More than 43 million people are to travel over the long holiday weekend, according to AAA. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)Photo: Jae C. Hong, STF

6of9FILE - In this Nov. 22, 2012, file photo, handlers keep a tight rein on the Sonic the Hedgehog balloon as it travels the route of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. Macyâs says it is closely monitoring the weather after recent forecasts predicted wind gusts up to 30 mph on Thanksgiving morning during the department storeâs upcoming Thanksgiving Day Parade. Based on New York City guidelines, no giant balloons will be operated if the wind gusts exceed 34 mph. (AP Photo/Charles Sykes, File)Photo: Charles Sykes, FRE

7of9A travel theme backdrop stands behind a rental car check-in counter as a customer rents a car at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2013, in Atlanta. More than 43 million people are to travel over the long holiday weekend, according to AAA. (AP Photo/David Goldman)Photo: David Goldman, STF

8of9A man sleeps at the Los Angeles International Airport on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2013, in Los Angeles. More than 43 million people are to travel over the long holiday weekend, according to AAA. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)Photo: Jae C. Hong, STF

9of9Tara Fitzsimons, a 20-year-old student who is traveling to Chicago, reads a book on her iPad while waiting in line to check in at the Los Angeles International Airport on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2013, in Los Angeles. More than 43 million people are to travel over the long holiday weekend, according to AAA. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)Photo: Jae C. Hong, STF

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - A wet and blustery storm along the East Coast made driving hazardous and tangled up hundreds of flights Wednesday in the middle of the Thanksgiving travel frenzy but didn't cause the all-out gridlock many had feared.

Many travelers marveled at how orderly and anxiety-free the airports were during what is typically one of the busiest days of the year.

One big question lingered in New York: Will high winds ground Snoopy and the other giant cartoon-character balloons at the Macy's parade on Thanksgiving Day?

The storm for the most part unleashed wind-driven rain along the Northeast's heavily populated Interstate 95 corridor from Richmond, Va., to the tip of Maine.

Pleasant surprise

Emerging from the weather gantlet was Katie Fleisher, who made it by car from Portsmouth, N.H., through rain and fog to Boston's Logan Airport with little trouble and discovered, to her amazement, that the panicked, cranky crowds she expected were nonexistent.

"We thought it would be busier here. But there've been no lines, and it has been really quiet all morning," said Fleisher, whose plan was to fly to Pittsburgh.

"Our flight is still on time, but we are checking the app every couple minutes," she said. "We are nervous, as we are traveling with two 1-year-olds, and any extra time on a plane would be horrible."

The storm was expected to heap around 6 inches of snow onto parts of West Virginia and western Pennsylvania and up to a foot in a pocket of upstate New York.

On Wednesday, damaging winds gusting up to 60 mph are expected to rip through Boston and other coastal areas.

Safety rules enacted in New York after a spectator was killed in 1997 in an accident involving a windblown balloon could prevent the giant inflatables from taking flight this year at the Macy's parade.

Flights canceled

Flight cancellations piled up at East Coast hubs. By midday Wednesday, around 250 flights to, from or within the U.S. had been canceled, according to the tracking website FlightAware.com. But that was a small fraction of the thousands of planes airborne over the U.S. at any given moment.

Most of the cancellations involved Newark, N.J., Philadelphia and New York's LaGuardia Airport.

The longest delays affected Philadelphia-bound flights, which were being held at their points of origin for an average of about two hours because of the weather, according to the website.

The Philadelphia area was under a flood watch, with 2 to 3 inches of rain forecast before falling temperatures turn precipitation to snow.

Roads there were snarled. A multi-vehicle crash closed the westbound lanes of the Schuylkill Expressway for a while, and the eastbound lanes were closed because of flooding.

The storm, which developed in the West over the weekend, has been blamed for at least 11 deaths, five of them in Texas.

More than 43 million people are expected to travel over the long holiday weekend, according to AAA. About 39 million of those will be on the roads, while more than 3 million people are expected to fly.